When Eminem gave a nod of respect to RJ Payne during his recent interview interview with Lil Wayne, hip-hop fans paid attention to his words.
Some appreciated the fact that Marshall is not only nerding out about classic rap but keeps a watchful eye over up-and-coming MCs. Some heard this name for the first time and had to check him out.
RJ Payne himself was surprised as much as everybody. He had no idea that Eminem knew about him and his music. Speaking with Mikey T The Movie Star of Report Card Radio, he admitted that it gave an immense boost to his confidence:
Imagine you’re making waves and people are like, “Yo, you will be a lot doper if you had a melody, you would be a lot doper if you dress or look like this, if you did this” and I’m like, “Nah, my fans like it, I’ll be fine”. So imagine suddenly you get, “Yo. Em knows who you are. he knows your music”. So it kind of just lets me know that I’m not crazy. Good music is good music whether it got a hook, whether it got a melody or not. So for Em to know who I am and to not do what everybody else do, that’s amazing, bro. I can’t even put that into words what it feels like to have that the GOATs know what I do and who I am without selling out. If you really state who you are and stick to your guns it’s the audience for you, it don’t matter what that is.
He mentioned that some comments tried to imply that Eminem’s praise is not that important and he was good even before that and it baffles RJ:
I don’t know if it’s a new generation or if it’s just the way the world is that we don’t value shit or we don’t value anything until it’s not here no more, but I know who Eminem is and I know all the records he broke. So for him to acknowledge me on my level, just the punchlines and hardcore rap – I give him all respect in the world because he didn’t have to be paying attention to RJ Payne.
This acknowledgement from Marshall gave to RJ Payne not only inspiration but also a motivation and urged him to work harder than ever before. He reminded about the freestyle he recorded as a reaction to Eminem’s praise::
The day that the footage came out I shot a video 24 hours later and put that shit out. Eminem had seen the video, I got the confirmation he’d seen the video. I just want to work harder. I was already a workhorse, I put out seven projects per year before Marshall came along. So now when I know he’s watching or Wayne’s watching, man, I’ll probably put out more projects than anybody in the rap game. I’m hungry as hell. I should be writing and rapping right now, I only stopped putting together my merch and working on my album to do it with you. If you’ve seen my freestyle, if you’ve seen what I just put out Animal, kind of just summing up who I am for the people who might not know who I was before Eminem gave me the shout out, that’s what you can expect. Expect the highest quality lyrics, the dopest production possible. Don’t expect no deep records, don’t expect none of that because right now I want people to know that Eminem wasn’t wrong. I want people to know that Lil Wayne is listening because it is some dope shit and it’s not what everybody else is doing. Don’t expect to tune in and hear RJ Payne doing a trap record, none of that. Expect what I’ve been doing but just times thirty.
Watch the video below:
